Grotto — Restaurant in Town of Clay

I'm looking through local restaurant reviews to make Valentines Day reservations for my wife and I and I came across Grotto. Boy, do the reviews make me laugh! Like the other diners, I too had an unpleasent experience, WEEKS AGO! It's not just one weekend, they are always this bad! And I had to laugh at the owner's response to other response to "rectify" and "resolve the issues". Don't start offering this to everyone who had a bad experience, surely you'll go out of buisness! My wife and I brought friends from out of town here and it was terrible. We waited FOREVER, it's a good thing we were in good comapany! And the food, while it was tasty, was inconsistant. 3 of us ordered the same meal and each one tasted and looked different - sides were different for each meal with no choice being given. The next day I talked about my experience with coworkers and they shared the same sentiment. While some diners talk about the waitstaff being friendly, we agreed with those that say if your not a regular, it's not friendly, it's annoying. Our waitress was so busy talking with her friends at an adjacent table that she forgot to ask me how I wanted my steak cooked. At one point she even tossed something to her friend at the table from across the dining room. It's nice to see Grotto has regulars and the waitstaff has friends, but for those of us who are not in the "in crowd", dining was less than stellar. As a professional in the area and an empty nester, my wife and I try new restaurants all the time. We were excited for this one when it opened, we shop and eat mom and pop and local, but we were disappointed to say the least. To the owner- only way to "rectify" this is to make...

The place looks nice and has good reviews, but it was definitely not our scene. I'm not sure why people liked the "atmosphere", but the restaurant is split into two areas, the dining room and the bar. Both places are astonishingly small, almost artificially so just to make you wait. Once you get in the dining area, expect to be seated very close to other people and told the specials without a menu or prices (once you ask for a menu, you'll see that the prices are on the high end). One of us ordered a special and one of us got something off the menu. My steak was nothing special (think chain restaurant, not high quality or well prepared, even for NY). My spouse's food was undercooked and terrible. The wine was also too dry (we asked for their sweetest). Follows the classic "don't want you to see the wait staff", but without the expectation that they actually keep tabs refilling your drink and the "food takes a long time to prepare" without any of the "wow, this tastes good". I would not recommend this place if you have a babysitter waiting for you to get back, like having private conversations, are hungry, or hate paying a lot of money for poor food. I would recommend it if you like being pretentious, waisting time and money, and want to socialize with random people you've never met before because you hate the person you're with. Grotto hallmarks everything bad about high end restaurants without any...

Friends introduced us to this popular restaurant in North Syracuse on a Saturday evening. It's important to have a reservation because the main dining room is rather small, perhaps a dozen tables. There was also a second dining room that was hosting a large party. We ordered four appetizers to share. This included the Grotto Greens, a delicious take on Utica Greens. The salad is built on wilted escarole rendered hot by cherry peppers, crunchy by toasted bread crumbs and sauteed, small-diced pancetta, and a little salty by shavings of Parmesan cheese. Stuffed Anaheim peppers were wrapped in prosciutto crudo and filled with sausage set in a delicious creamy sauce. The crab cakes were served with a spicy hot aioli. Finally, the breaded and fried calamari came with a tomato dipping sauce. What a wonderful way to start a meal. Unfortunately, my main dish, veal saltimbocca, was a bit disappointing. The veal and bucatini pasta were perfectly cooked, but the translucent sauce was greasy and fairly tasteless. Adding salt brought out some flavor, but I would not order the dish again. My wife loved her chicken marsala. It had a beautiful dark-colored, flavorful sauce, meaty mushrooms, and tender, lean chicken. She also enjoyed the cheesy mashed potatoes that accompanied it. The bread served for the table was excellent, and the service was great. Also, the ambience was conducive to enjoying an extended conversation with...